The Best Offshore Banks for 2023
Nomad Capitalist
Premier Banking: DBS Treasures
Of the three major banks in Singapore, DBS Treasures has the best premier banking services.
DBS is fairly easy to deal with, and it has plenty of interesting investment banking opportunities, including next-generation robo-investing. You’ll need to invest at least S$350,000 (Singapore dollars), but for that amount, you’ll get a relatively robust level of service.
These benefits make DBS Treasures our go-to recommendation for wealthy entrepreneurs and investors who keep cash on hand.
Singapore itself is also an excellent jurisdiction for wealth. As we mentioned in the video above, it’s our favorite place in the world to store gold and preserve wealth.
Additionally, although Singapore has a reputation for wealth and opulence, it’s more accessible than what Crazy Rich Asians would have you believe. Singapore is designed for the modern entrepreneur who doesn’t want the pretense and the B.S. of places like Switzerland.
Banks like DBS reflect this idea with benefits like top-notch online banking, unique travel privileges, and creative investment options.
Ease of Opening an Account: TBC Bank
As we mentioned earlier, one of the most important aspects of an offshore bank is how easy it is to deal with, and TBC Bank in Georgia is perhaps the easiest bank to deal with in the world.
Georgia is just generally an easy place to do business. As an emerging market, the country wants your capital, and most Georgian businesses and banks will happily do business with you.
TBC Bank reflects Georgia’s business-friendly attitude as the process for opening an account here takes as little as ten minutes if done in-person.
The bank also allows remote openings through Power of Attorney granted to a Georgian lawyer, usually taking from one to two weeks.
You’ll need to show proof of identity and fill out some paperwork, and if you’re a US person, you’ll need to fill out a few FATCA-related forms. Then, once you’ve completed that minimal amount of paperwork, you can make your deposit and be on your way.
Account minimums are also quite low. You can open a regular or CD account here with as little as $10, and for premium banking services, you only need around $50,000.
However, while this is relatively cheap, you get great service – in fact, many of the people who we work with have told us that premier banking in Georgia reminds them of the golden age of banking in Hong Kong.
As an added bonus, TBC Bank has excellent online banking services, and for term deposits, you can get interest rates of up to 10%.
Remote Account Opening: Capital Security Bank
As we always say, we’re not a big fan of remote bank account opening.
Call us old school, but we prefer to open bank accounts in person. In our view, nothing can replace meeting with your bank in person, and remote account opening can be tedious thanks to the amount of paperwork involved.
However, sometimes you might need to open an account remotely – or if you’re a nerd like me, you may want to do it just for the sake of experiencing the process.
In that case, we recommend using Capital Security Bank in the Cook Islands. The process for opening an account remotely here is much more streamlined than in other remote banking jurisdictions, and you’ll get better service here as well.
It’s a bit more upscale than most banks where you can open an account remotely, which means that you’ll need to put in a higher minimum deposit. You’re also obliged to maintain minimum required balance of $250,000 to keep your account active.
100% Liquidity: Capital Security Bank
As we mentioned earlier, banks don’t often keep all of their deposits on hand since they’ll make loans and investments, and a bank’s liquidity ratio indicates how much of your money that they may use to do that.
However, a handful of banks don’t make any loans whatsoever, meaning that they have 100% liquidity.
Capital Security Bank also takes the title here for one of the best offshore banks with 100% liquidity. Rather than acting as a traditional bank, CSB essentially holds your money in trust, giving you the peace of mind knowing that your bank won’t lose your money.
Best Fintech Bank: Neat
We personally are not a huge fan of fintech banks. We like them for what they are, but they’re not going to meet the needs of a six- or seven-figure entrepreneur, who likely needs more robust services than a fintech product can provide.
However, if you need a transactional account, then fintech products could be an interesting choice. And if that’s what you’re looking for, then we recommend Neat.
Unlike European fintech banks, which often involve plenty of bureaucratic nonsense, Neat is based in Hong Kong. And like most Asian tech and financial products, it’s a lot more efficient than its European counterparts.
Neat allows you to set up accounts entirely online, and it also allows you to easily bank in multiple currencies. Additionally, if you’re in e-commerce, then you can easily link Stripe, Amazon, PayPal, and similar types of accounts to your Neat account.